Free Blood Tests for Lead for Some Kids in Public Housing

By Melissa Russo

A federal judge on Friday ordered an independent group to monitor the city's efforts to test and remedy lead issues in New York City Housing Authority buildings. Melissa Russo reports.

(Published Friday, Dec. 1, 2017)

What to Know

New York City is offering free lead tests to kids who live in public housing units that were repainted in the last year

Officials revealed that the painters hadn't been properly trained to protect kids from lead paint

A recent report found NYCHA hasn't been doing required lead inspections at its units for years, dating back to Bloomberg administration

City officials announced Saturday that children living in recently painted public housing units will be eligible for free lead tests after discovering that workers weren't properly trained on lead abatement.

New York City housing inspectors are rushing to perform mandatory inspections for lead at NYCHA buildings. Melissa Russo reports.

(Published Monday, Nov. 27, 2017)

Children who lived in New York City Housing Authority apartments that were repainted after a 2016 lead inspection would be offered the free lead tests, said Olivia Lapeyrolerie, a spokeswoman for Mayor Bill de Blasio.

The tests are now being offered "out of an abundance of caution," she said.

The news that lead hazard abatement last year may not have been properly completed in more than 2,200 apartments with young children comes on top of recent revelations that NYCHA had failed to perform mandatory annual inspections for more than four years. The latest findings cast additional doubt on de Blasio’s recent assurances that the city had taken swift action after learning in 2016 that it was out of compliance and that no children had been harmed. Some

Lead experts and lawyers suing the city on behalf of lead poisoned children mayors ability to declare no harm to children since many children in those homes would not have been routinely tested for lead exposures.

Mayor de Blasio said earlier this week children have not suffered as a result of his administration’s failure to perform mandated annual lead paint inspections in thousands of NYC Housing Authority units throughout the city. But at least one family suing the city in federal court begs to differ. Melissa Russo reports.

(Published Wednesday, Nov. 22, 2017)

She said that NYCHA began new training for workers and vendors in August for the second round of inspections to be completed next week that would bring the city into compliance with local law.

The first round of inspections began in the summer of 2016, according to top housing officials who claimed that’s when they learned they had failed to inspect for several years. And it appears the majority of apartments inspected last year displayed possible hazards. A NYCHA spokeswoman says of 4,232 units visually inspected, peeling or chipping paint were found in more than half.

In 2016 alone, 2,363 of those units were repainted. But peeling and chipping paint is visible on the walls of Kyan Dickerson’s apartment in the Red Hook East houses.

In court Thursday, city lawyers argued that Dickerson's apartment underwent a complete lead remediation before his family moved in.

Kyan’s mother, Sherron Paige says NYCHA eventually sealed up a pizza-box sized hole in their wall, but did not repaint, nor otherwise abate the lead hazard in their home. Kyan was diagnosed in July with dangerously high lead levels in his blood.

His mother says he has suffered developmental delays as a result of his exposure. As the I-Team reported, housing officials initially denied the presence of lead in Kyan’s apartment, despite findings to the contrary by the NYC Health Department.

NYCHA declined to comment on why Kyan’s apartment has still not been painted, citing the ongoing litigation.